Q&A: Rockets GM was prepared for ‘horrible season’

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Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey is proud of his young team for making the playoffs, but doesn’t want the ride to end in the first round. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )

With the victory in Oklahoma assured, his Rio Grande Valley Vipers having just taken Game 1 in their second-round series of the NBA Development League playoffs against the Tulsa 66ers, the time seemed right to catch Rockets general manager Daryl Morey for a few questions about the Rockets and that other playoff series to begin in Oklahoma.
In less than a year, he had nearly rebuilt the Rockets, completing several deals he did not expect to go through, including the trade for James Harden just days before the start of the season. He had declared making the playoffs to be “a stretch goal” before the Rockets earned their first playoff spot since the 2008-09 season.
As he headed from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, Morey reveled in the Game 1 Vipers’ win and discussed the regular season just completed, the postseason to come and the work still to be done.

Q: What have been your feelings about breaking through to reach the playoffs, beginning with the night the Rockets clinched the playoff spot and through the week?

Morey: It was just tense, relief when we clinched the playoffs. I just felt there was always a chance that the very unlikely scenario plays out and we missed it. Actually, it might have gotten dicey the way things played out. We set ourselves up to probably position ourselves in the playoffs a little bit better so it was disappointing we didn’t do that, but overall, now that the regular season is over, taking a step back, 45 wins is just an amazing accomplishment for the coaches and players.

Q: Going back to the first week of July and the start of free agency, you were not optimistic then. How different would things have been had the Knicks matched the offer sheet for Jeremy Lin and the Bulls matched for Omer Asik as you expected?

Morey: I had prepared Leslie (Alexander) for just a horrible season if we don’t get Jeremy and don’t make the trade for James. I actually think Leslie was prepared for it for the first time. I think it was the right approach. We were hoping to avoid a down year, but I don’t see any way we could have avoided it if we don’t have some of the things break our way, Omer, Jeremy and James, and even getting guys like (Carlos) Delfino on very good deals at the end of free agency. A lot of stuff had
to come together.

Q: What were your expectations for this season after training camp and the trade for Harden?

Morey: After the James deal, I felt like — and I think I even said it then — our goal was the playoffs, but I felt like it was a stretch goal. I still thought that was a very, very hard goal to give the team. To their credit, they got it. People should realize what the coaches and players were able to do doesn’t happen in this league. We changed the whole roster. Sixth-youngest team to ever make it in the tough West. Very inexperienced. It just doesn’t happen. A great achievement by them.

Q: Where does this step lead?

Morey: Obviously, the most optimistic way of looking at it is to look at Oklahoma City three years ago. They were the eighth seed, made the playoffs for the first time, they were slightly younger than us even. They made a progression from that first year to probably not the favorite, but the second favorite to win the title. If we can make a progression like that, that would be fabulous.

Q: Do you have any idea how you get there, or will it be mostly from growth from within, as it was generally for Oklahoma City?

Morey: I think we’ll have to do a little more than growth from within. I hope it’s all growth from within. We’ll still take bets on young players, but we also may have to look outside, most likely through free agency than trades. We have that cap room and we like our young players and are reluctant to trade most of them, if not all of them.

Q: You’ve spoken of the work done by the coaching staff to get such a young, inexperienced team to the playoffs, but does that indicate growth ahead of schedule or is roster building still necessary?

Morey: It shows the players came along faster than most young teams do. That’s usually a great sign for the future. Success when young is probably the No. 1 indicator of if you are going be great in this league.

Q: When you talk about building, how imperative is it to use your cap space now at the risk of committing to those free agents long term as opposed to waiting for just the right guy, whenever that happens?

Morey: We’re not the first team to be young and hope for the future. We know probably the No. 1 mistake franchises make is in this phase to spend money on the wrong players, and it ties them up. We’ll be real careful. We’re going to be careful in free agency. We’re not going to be straightforward — team need, sign guy, team need, sign guy.

Q: So at this stage, does the question become what move makes you great as opposed to what move makes you better?
Morey: That’s exactly it.

Or what moves make us better without hurting our ability to make moves to be great. Carlos would be a great example of that.

Q: How do you beat the Thunder?

Morey: We need to change the game a little bit. We need to make it more of a random game. I don’t want to get in the details of it. I don’t really want to answer that one. Obviously, I talked to the coaching staff. They’re a very good coaching staff. They don’t need me to develop game plans. Analysis says they are maybe the best team in the league. There’s not a lot of holes. They’re really, really good. It’s like when Pete Sampras was coming up. You hope to have a little synopsis of what they are good at and not so good at. For Sampras, it said, ‘Good at serve, forehand, backhand and volley.’ For weakness, it said, ‘Topspin lob.’ I think that’s Oklahoma City’s weakness: topspin lob.